Australia will send their first cricket team to Zimbabwe next month since the troubled tour of 2004, Cricket Australia said yesterday.
A Cricket Academy side will play three matches against Zimbabwe's one-day side as part of a three-week African tour which also takes in South Africa and Kenya.
The Zimbabwe visit is the first since the senior team's controversial tour two years ago, which bowler Stuart MacGill boycotted in protest at human rights abuses and when the Test series was cancelled after player disputes weakened the home side.
The New Zealand government last year refused to allow Zimbabwe to tour in protest at what it called the abuse of democratic principles by Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe.
However, academy coach Tim Nielsen reiterated Cricket Australia and International Cricket Council (ICC) policy that the only valid reason for not playing in Zimbabwe would be if player safety was compromised.
"Politically it's not my place to say, I'm going there to play cricket under the ICC set-up," Nielsen told the cricinfo.com website.
"The only reason we wouldn't tour was if there was a safety issue," he said. "We're going there to play good cricket against their national teams as part of the ICC family. As long as we're safe and secure we're happy to help out."
Nielsen said that pre-tour reports had satisfied him that Zimbabwe was safe.
The country is in the throes of an economic crisis characterized by hyperinflation, widespread unemployment and chronic shortages.
The academy's 14-player squad travels to Africa next Wednesday.
It is made up of promising young players with scholarships at the Adelaide-based academy that cricket chiefs want to provide with international exposure.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB